School Bus Accident Injures 13 Students

KISSIMMEE — Thirteen children were shaken up but not seriously injured Wednesday morning after a motorcycle driven by an off-duty Kissimmee firefighter collided with their school bus.

Ben Jeffery, 24, of 5 Trotters Circle, suffered broken ribs and cuts after his motorcycle slammed into the right side of the bus, which was taking the children to Beaumont Middle School. He was in intensive care at Humana Hospital Kissimmee.

At about 7:20 a.m., Jeffery, who has been on the force since December 1987, apparently ran the stop sign at Mitchell and Sproule streets, said Kissimmee police Officer Jerome Godwin. An investigation is continuing; no ticket has been issued.

Four ambulances took seven of the children to Kissimmee Memorial Hospital and the other six students and Jeffery, to Humana Hospital Kissimmee.

The most serious injuries to the children were two sprained ankles and a possible case of whiplash, according to a hospital spokesman. All the students were released.

At Kissimmee Memorial, the waiting room was filled with parents and schoolchildren. Elizabeth Delvalle, 14, was brought to the hospital with a bloody nose.

''The motorcycle came real fast,'' she said. ''She the bus driver hit the brakes. Everyone started jumping around. I got knocked around. I hit my nose and started bleeding.''

Elizabeth's father sat beside her at the hospital. School officials had called him at home to tell him his daughter was at the hospital.

''I was nervous,'' Pedro Delvalle said. ''I was thinking that someday there would be an accident. I took ACCIDENT, 3

her to the bus myself. It would scare anybody.''

Brian Smith, 13, left the emergency room wearing a neck brace. He said his neck hit the back of his seat.

Ruth Ann Scott was at the hospital to pick up her daughters, Tracey and Stacey, who were on the bus.

''It was very traumatic,'' Scott said about the call from school officials. ''They said they her daughters weren't bleeding and that they were stable. It still scared me to death.''

Tracey, 11, came out of the emergency room to be with her mother while Stacey, 13, was being treated. Tracey had hurt her neck and back and said she was still dizzy.

''The motorcycle hit the bus, and we went flying in the air,'' Tracey said. ''We almost tipped over. I flew forward and then got jerked back. My neck hit the seat.''

Her mother said she thinks that seat belts would have prevented the injuries.

''There need to be seat belts on school buses,'' she said. ''My kids don't want to get back on the bus.''

Her feelings were echoed at Beaumont, where parents of children who were not injured in the accident were arriving to take them home. Principal Mike Smith gave all students who rode the bus the option of staying at school or going home. All but three chose to leave.

Smith said a team of specialists trained to help students in traumatic situations, went to the accident scene and then to the school. He said the team stayed with the students at the school library until parents arrived.

One of those receiving counseling was 11-year-old Crystal Wensel, who had been involved in a bus accident when she was in kindergarten.

Her mother, Jan, said she thinks having seat belts on school buses should be mandatory.

However, Walt Allison, director of transportation for Osceola County schools, said studies have shown that seat belts in school bus accidents thrust the head and neck, ''causing more neck and spine injuries.''

Allison said that if the bus, an early 1980s-model, had been built before 1977, the accident might have been more serious. In 1977, he said, the National Transportation Safety Board mandated that gas tanks on school buses be encased. In Wednesday's accident, ''the impact occurred directly behind the fill for the fuel tank,'' Allison said.

''There would have been an increased risk, a possibility of fire'' had the gas tank not been encased, he said.

Allison also commended bus driver Paula Adkins, 38, of Kissimmee. He called Adkins, who has been a bus driver since August 1988, a ''veteran.''

''If I had 100 like her, I could retire,'' he said. Allison said Adkins has a perfect driving record and a commendation in her folder.

Adkins said the children remained calm after the accident because she had turned on the bus's dome light, and ''when the dome light is on, the children are trained to be silent.''

She said some students later told her they now understand why safety rules are needed on the bus.

''A couple of them came up to me and said, 'Mrs. Adkins, I know why you don't want us to have our pencils out.' ''

She had nothing but praise for the students and their handling of the situation.

''My kids were great. For the age group that they're in, I don't think they could've done any better if they were adults,'' she said. Middle school students generally range from 11 to 13 years of age.